1. Field
The present embodiments relate to batteries for portable electronic devices. More specifically, the present embodiments relate to battery packs with cells of different capacities, thicknesses, and/or dimensions.
2. Related Art
Rechargeable batteries are presently used to provide power to a wide variety of portable electronic devices, including laptop computers, mobile phones, PDAs, digital music players and cordless power tools. The most commonly used type of rechargeable battery is a lithium battery, which can include a lithium-ion or a lithium-polymer battery.
Lithium-polymer batteries often include cells that are packaged in flexible pouches. Such pouches are typically lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture. Moreover, pouches may be tailored to various cell dimensions, allowing lithium-polymer batteries to be used in space-constrained portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers, and/or digital cameras. For example, a lithium-polymer battery cell may achieve a packaging efficiency of 90-95% by enclosing a jelly roll and electrolyte in a foil pouch. Multiple pouches may then be placed side-by-side within a portable electronic device and electrically coupled in series and/or in parallel to form a battery for the portable electronic device.
However, efficient use of space may be limited by the use and arrangement of cells in existing battery pack architectures. In particular, battery packs typically contain cells of the same capacity, size, and dimensions. The physical arrangement of the cells may additionally mirror the electrical configuration of the cells. For example, a six-cell battery pack may include six lithium-polymer cells of the same size and capacity configured in a two in series, three in parallel (2s3p) configuration. Within the battery pack, two rows of three cells placed side-by-side may be stacked on top of each other; each row may be electrically coupled in a parallel configuration and the two rows electrically coupled in a series configuration. Consequently, the battery pack may require space in a portable electronic device that is at least the length of each cell, twice the thickness of each cell, and three times the width of each cell. Furthermore, the battery pack may be unable to utilize free space in the portable electronic device that is outside of a rectangular space reserved for the battery pack.
Hence, the use of portable electronic devices may be facilitated by improvements related to the packaging efficiency, capacity, form factor, cost, design, and/or manufacturing of battery packs containing lithium-polymer battery cells.